Monday, October 11, 2010

According to news reports (Slovenian only), Slovenian-based Ghanaian doctor and politician Peter Bossman was in the lead with over 30% of votes after yesterday's election to become mayor of the lovely seaside town of Piran. The race will now go into run-offs against the current sitting mayor (who had just over 20%) of the vote. Here's hoping Dr. Bossman makes it all the way through and becomes the first black* mayor in Slovenia! Let's goooooo!

In further news, journalist Vlado Miheljak puts forth a more ambitious proposition..."Peter Bossman For President" and much mudslinging in the comments ensues! (Slovenian only)

*yes, say BLACK/črn not temnopolt/ "dark-skinned". Black comes in many shades (from light to dark) and is an experience, not just a state of melanin.

10
comments:

Just to clarify: in his coloumn, Miheljak doesn't actually propose that dr. Bossman should run for president. The mudslinging that ensues is not, in fact, directed at dr. Bossman.

that is not to say that there hasn't been mudslinging.

also, just because i'm in a nit-picking mood: a "Slovenian-based Ghanaian doctor and politician". now, i haven't seen his citizenship papers, but the law says he has to have them to run for office. so describing him as Peter Bossman, a Ghanaian-Slovenian doctor; or Peter Bossman, a doctor, originally from Ghana might make more sense.

now all he has to do is win and get on with his programme. good luck, dr. bossman!

As to your clarifications: I know and I know, but I like the way I put it anyway. Anyone who can read the article should get what I mean, and those who can't, well no biggie. I'm sure they don't really care that much. I hope it didn't come off as me misrepresenting Miheljak or the crazy forums. If so, meh.

"Ghanaian-Slovenian" might be more accurate but I thought it made him sound more like a Slovenian-born person of Ghanaian heritage (like the singer Ms. Yebuah that I profiled some weeks back); "originally from Ghana" was the wording I was wracking my brain for yesterday. Thanks for that. I should go on and fix it.

My point is this: not every black person is dark-skinned and not every dark-skinned person is black. There are dark-skinned Indians and native people of Australia and Oceania (and beyond) but "temnopolt" gives you know sense of their heritage, nationality, anything. I have a neighbour who spends to much time in the tanning bed, he gets very dark but I doubt anyone would describe him as "temnopolt" either. By the same token, there are black people (see, for example artist Adrian Piper - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Adrian_Piper.jpg OR actress Jennifer Beals - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jennifer_Beals) who are about the same complexion of some Slovenians after a sunny day.

Black is a race that is associated with people of some perceived level of African origin. In railing again "temnopolt". I support "black" as a classification that brings people of African descent the world over in line with a long and storied history of struggle, migration, failure, and triumph, which has much less to do with the amount of melanin we have and a lot more to do with where (and from what) we came from.